University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston Spring Football Press Conferece
3/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Quotes from University of Houston Spring Football Press Conference
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 * Houston, Texas * Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH Kevin Sumlin
Opening Statement
"We start spring practice today. Obviously, our guys have been looking forward to it. We were on spring break last week, and they have been in the weight room with Coach (Larry) Jackson since school started back up on Jan. 20. We pushed back spring ball a little. We gave our guys a six-week cycle in the weight room, trying to get them bigger and stronger.
"Now, we're in the second phase of spring, which is the beginning of actual practice. The first two practices are in shorts and we'll go in pads on Friday. We'll have an open scrimmage on Saturday. Practices will be closed during the week and we'll scrimmage at Robertson Stadium at noon.
"After the scrimmage, we'll hold our first annual Cougar Youth Experience. The clinic will be for young kids from kindergarten to eighth grade. It will be free to attend the scrimmage and, immediately following the scrimmage, the coaches and players will run a camp, breaking up by position. They will be available for autographs and will hang around to interact with the kids. It will give our guys a chance to be around some younger kids from the community and from around the city of Houston. Hopefully, it will generate some more interest.
"The following week we will practice on Tuesday and Thursday, and we'll host a high school coaches clinic here that following weekend. We'll scrimmage again that Saturday, probably at the same time. The next week we will practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We'll give them that weekend off and come back for the final week before the spring game on April 18.
"As coaches, we are excited that it's football season and that we have 15 days of actual practice. We have a bunch of positions that we're obviously looking to fill. We have some junior-college players that have come in that are already here and will try to get in the mix. We need to figure out where we are on the offensive line with the two newcomers. Last year, we had a bunch of injuries on the offensive line, but that helped us develop some depth. Jordan Shoemaker and Josh Bell were both operated on and will not go through spring football. That will give us an opportunity for some of our younger players that we signed last year, redshirt freshmen and junior college guys, to get in and get some reps. Same thing defensively, a lot has been made of losing four starters on the defensive line. The four guys who will start this year during the spring all played last year and played a lot. They will get more reps and we'll need to develop some depth. Some of these injuries will give us an opportunity to get some more reps."
On having any early enrollees
"We don't have any early graduates. We only have the three junior-college players: Jarve Dean, Roy Watts and Jacky Candy. Those three are in school. We didn't have any early enrollees out of high school. Obviously when you recruit junior college players, they are looking to get in the mix and that's why they get in early."
On Patrick Edwards' status
"Patrick has gone through conditioning. He will go through the non-contact portion of practice at the beginning, probably around 20-30 minutes. I don't want to push him too hard. If it was up to him, he'd practice the whole practice based on what he told me yesterday. We'll bring him along slowly, have him run routes and catch a bunch of passes, but he won't do any contact work until next fall. But, he's right on track to play next year, which is pretty amazing."
On the back-up quarterback position
"We have three guys in camp. Cotton Turner showed some flashes last year, but it's hard to say. We didn't give those guys a lot of reps last year. You really only rep two guys during the season. Turner and Austin Elrod will be in the mix, as will Crawford Jones. Out of those three guys coming out of spring, one of them will have the upper hand. And we signed two high school guys (Drew Hollingshead and Broderick Thomas, Jr.. Even though they won't be here in the spring, they will be here in June and will get an opportunity to get involved in the system. Two years from now, we will have another starter. That starter may or may not be on campus right now."
